The Sweeter The Strawberry
by RiaKitsuneYoukai
Summary: An adventure in the search for sweet berries. -Naruhina-


_Ahh, they look so good! _

Hyuuga Hinata gave a proud blush at her freshly picked berries, cradling them carefully in their brown wicker basket. She knelt near the river that ran through her homeland, Konoha, tenderly placing the basket to her right and taking a particularly big fruit from it's container. She held it in the palm of her left hand, keeping her other fingers on the leaves, and slowly dipped in into the water, rinsing off the near invisible specks of dirt. The girl rolled it over a few times, checking its cleanliness.

Satisfied, she took it up and brought it to her mouth.

Finally, she would get to taste a real strawberry. The small, unnoticed corner of the Hyuuga estate had but one bush of these fruits, and although the girl had taken good care of it, the former year's batch hadn't survived the plague of aphids that got to them. This time, however, she had done her best. Every day after training, if she were free of missions, the kunoichi would return to her home, give her Otou-san a greeting and bow if she happened to meet him in the halls, stealthily avoid any confrontations, and make her way to her hidden spot.

Though she knew it was foolish, Hinata had heard somewhere that talking to plants helped them grow. She told the growing bush that she was sorry she had not watched it more carefully the year before, and often would recall her days' experiences to it.

"I had a mission with Naruto-kun and Kiba-kun today," she had said once, upon returning from an assignment of assassination in a western-like town, a twenty-four hour walk from the Hidden Village of the Leaves.

"I made Naruto-kun some onigiri, but I'm afraid he didn't like it much." She had sighed sadly at this. The Hyuuga girl had gotten up extra early the day they were set to leave to make those rice balls, taking special care to cutely make them resemble her ninja comrade's face.

"He said, 'It's kind of hard to eat myself,'" she continued, closing her eyes as she recalled the incident. "Then Kiba-kun gave one to Akamaru, and Naruto-kun ate the one I gave him." She had looked at the plant and smiled, taking a small caterpillar from one of it's green appendages.

"I was happy that Naruto-kun ate it," she said, "but I sort of wish I hadn't made those onigiri look like him. Maybe then he would like them more?"

She frowned, the berry poised between her teeth. She still regretted that. Hinata wanted so badly to make her precious person happy, if it were by giving him gifts that she had done her best at, or keeping her promise in the nindo they both shared.

"_I'm not going to take back my words_."

Hinata gave a start, noticing that her words were doubled. A quick look to the left told her all she needed to know.

"I told you, I'm not going to take them back! That's my way of the ninja!"

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before. But what about taking back your actions?"

The boy paused in mid-thought, standing up in the water and turning to look at his friend, Inuzuka Kiba, on shore. He frowned.

"If I took back my actions then I'd be taking back my words too! I said I was going to catch a fish with my bare hands and damn if I'm not going to do it!"

As he looked away to again search for some freshwater animal to catch, the shinobi on land shook his head and gave his dog, Akamaru, who was sleeping against his leg, a pat on the head.

"Idiot."

"Ano... Kiba-kun?"

He looked up.

"Ah, Hinata. What's up?"

The girl clutched her basket closer to her chest and took a seat beside him. He eyed the strawberries and asked, "Can I have one?"

She blinked, looked down at her precious food, and nodded. Kiba grinned and plucked one from between her arms, ignoring the fact that her attention had been switched to the ninja in the lake. Deciding to take his chances, he snatched a few more, quickly stuffing them in his shuriken pouch. The first he had taken was instantly in his mouth.

"Don't even ask," said the boy, giving an I-can't-believe-he's-actually-doing-that look at Naruto, who at that very second had fallen face-first into the water screaming, "I have you now!"

The kunoichi smiled secretly, her hand coming up in front of her lips as she watched her special ninja spluttering on his hands an knees and yelling at the fish that had escaped him. And, naturally, he chose that very moment to look back to shore and tell Kiba that, "I'll get him the next time!" Hinata felt her face flush as he looked towards her.

"Hey! Hinata! How're you doin'?"

She felt her voice catch as she tried to answer.

"I-I-I'm good," she stuttered. Kiba sighed.

"Hinata, he can't hear you. You're too quiet."

She tried again.

"I-I'm good!"

He shook his head. Resigning, the girl looked back to her berries. She moved them around a little, looking for a single that wasn't oddly shaped or dirty. Eventually she chose one, lifting it to her mouth just as a soggy shinobi came up beside her.

"Yay, strawberries!"

She felt her fingers slip on the red fruit and jumped slightly as she looked up. Uzumaki Naruto, hovering above her and looking _towards her chest_ to the berries that _she_ had grown, and of all things, _shirtless_. She could have died right then and there.

The boy looked up from the food and instead at Hinata's face, which now was the color of a perfectly ripe tomato. He lifted a hand to her forehead.

"Do you have a fever again?"

"N-n-n-n-n-o, N-n-n-n-aru-"

"Maybe you should see Tsunade Obaa-chan about them. You get fevers a lot, don't you?"

"N-n-n-n-n-n-aruto-kun, I-I-I-"

"Back away, Naruto; she's about to faint."

Confused, the boy took a step back and flopped into a cross-legged sitting position. He propped his hands on his thighs, arched his back and stared at the girl intensely, only to be met with a punch to the head from Kiba.

"What the hell was that for?"

"I told you to back off."

"I did!"

"A-a-a-no, K-K-Kiba-kun..."

"You want a fight?"

"Sure!"

Both stood up at the same moment, glaring at each other while Hinata tried to compose herself. She took a few short breaths, stood up, and cautiously moved towards the two.

"I don't even know what you're fighting me for! I backed off, like you said. Besides," the blond boy gave a weird little chuckle, "you can't beat me anyway."

Kiba growled, which woke Akamaru, which distracted Hinata, which got Naruto yelling again, waving his arms like a lunatic and accidentally hitting the bottom of the basket of strawberries.

From the kunoichi's arms jumped her newly-picked berries, flying through the air like brightly colored rocks. All three were silent as they went 'plop, plop, plopplopplop' on the ground. A few rolled into the lake and were carried away from them by the stream. Naruto was quick to notice where these fruits had come from and glanced at Hinata, an oh-my-god look apparent in his bright blue eyes. She was eying her food with a look of surprise and then sadness, watching a few drift downstream in their cork-like way. A fish even came up to bite one. She brought her arms came up to cover her torso, biting down on the side of her index finger.

"Ahh... ahh, Hinata..."

The boy shifted his eyes repetitively from her face to what was left of the strawberries, now mostly speckled with dirt or slowly rolling down the hill they were on. Kiba growled again, staring at the ninja with his famous 'I'm-going-to-kill-you' glare. Naruto took a glance at him, turned back to the girl, got a little more worked up, then looked back to the berries.

"Ummm... yeah, uhh..."

He squatted down and reached for a few of the not-so-beat-up fruits and carried them to the water's edge. One by one, he began washing the grass and silt from their surfaces.

"See? They're still good."

He held one up for Hinata to inspect, clutching the rest to the skin of his stomach. She nodded shyly, then her white eyes shifted to a patch of extra-long grass as she replayed what had just happened. What would have been a smile, since her special person was doing something to try to make her feel better, turned into a small... not smile.

"Hey, Hinata."

She looked up, only to have the leafless red end of a strawberry put into her mouth. Shocked, the girl's shaking hands reached for it.

"Does it still taste good?" asked Naruto, standing but a few inches away from her. Her face flushed fully, looking straight up into his eyes as he waited for a reaction. She shakily took a bite and nodded as she chewed. The boy grinned and grabbed one himself from the place in his arms, happily shoving it between his teeth. His expression went from ecstatic to questioning to non-understanding.

"Hinata..." he said slowly, munching his food thoughtfully, "this is bitter."

Her body jolted and froze up. Her berries, that she had spend so much time caring for, were bitter? She took another bite hesitantly.

"T-they are?"

"Yeah."

She looked at the Inuzuka boy.

"Kiba-kun, d-do you think they're bitter?"

The boy shoved his hands in his pockets and cautiously looked away, his lips pursed. Knowing what his actions meant, Hinata felt her limbs go slack, and she dropped the fruit as she began slowly pushing her two index fingers together.

"Ano..."

"Hinata, have you only ever tasted bitter strawberries?"

She looked back to that nice patch of long grass, silent. Kiba gave a small sigh from her left. The blond ninja thought a moment, lifting the half-consumed berry from his mouth to examine it. He could see the blurry form of the girl in his farsighted vision, and could tell, even now, that something was up.

"Well, then."

She glanced at him.

"We'll have to find some not-bitter berries." He smiled. "You can't go through life not knowing what a sweet strawberry is like."

She lifted her head fully, her pink face showing a slight hint of gratitude. The boy's smile evolved into a full out grin as he snatched up his black shirt (which Akamaru had been laying on), grabbed two of her fingers, and began towing her away from the water. She made a small squeak of surprise and her face reddened.

"OI! Don't leave me behind!"

Naruto started laughing as they heard Kiba scramble to wake Akamaru and follow. The kunoichi found herself smiling a little as well, just by the pure insanity of it all. Here she was, being towed by her precious person, who was holding her hand, of all things, being chased by her angry teammate, running to only-Uzumaki-knows where.

"Around here!" said the blond boy, flinging her around the corner of a building and letting her hand go before following. She tried to slow herself down to stop from falling over, but was met by a small shove and a whisper to "keep going." Struggling to keep her balance, Hinata spun on her heel and tore off ahead of him. She wasn't worried about him keeping up, since he was already an arm's reach away. She decided, since it'd be hard to look behind herself and not run into anything that happened to cross her path, that she'd use the pride of her Hyuuga clan's heritage.

"_Byakugan!" _

Suddenly gifted with 360 degree sight, plus the perception of through and between object and people, the girl could see a screaming Inuzuka coming up around the corner, and Naruto's flushed and laughing face just behind her. She could also tell that they were nearing a dead end, and quickly told her comrade. He nodded.

"Yeah, I know."

"But, Naruto-kun..."

"Just trust me with this, okay?"

It was her turn to nod, turning off her bloodline limit once the wall came into sight. She hesitantly looked back at the boy when it came within a few feet.

"Jump!"

Slightly stunned by the sudden instructions, Hinata jumped, using some of her chakra to boost herself up and over the block. She could see, from the corner of her eye, Konoha's fox-boy flying way above her head. He looked down at her, grinned, and waved. Her cheeks burned with both the adrenaline rush from running and from being around him for so long without some distraction, and she smiled back. She heard her teammate, behind them, yelling.

"Dammit, wait up! Hinata! Naruto!"

As they hit the top of the long wall Naruto turned his head, pulled down on his eyelid and stuck his tongue out, making a long, "Nyaaaaah" noise at the boy. Hinata gave a burst of quiet but hesitant giggles at the boy's reaction. Kiba barked out a string of swear words and reached into his shuriken pouch, launching a few at the Uzumaki nin's head.

If they had actually been shuriken, Naruto would've died at that moment.

Instead, he was caught up in hysterical laughter.

"..."

A moment of silence from the other two as they stared at the boy's forehead, where two blotches of red strawberry remains had hit and were dripping down his nose. Then the kunoichi started laughing – a strange laugh, like repetitive, loud giggles. Naruto turned to face her, a huge grin plastered over his berry-painted face. Kiba, meanwhile, was mumbling to himself about stupid places to put fruit.

"Hinata," said the blond boy quietly, moving towards her, "We've gotta run now."

"Okay," she replied, trying to swallow her smile. Somehow, Hinata felt both mean, having run away from Kiba and angered him, and incredibly proud.

Both turned on the tips of their feet and bounced off the side of the wall, tearing off again as soon as their feet met ground. By the time the Inuzuka boy actually noticed they had left, they were half a city away.

* * *

The two came to a stop near the home of the recent Hokage, just in front of the four huge carvings on the mountain that shadowed Konoha. Naruto squinted past the light of the sun and looked up towards the rocky face of the Third. Hinata resumed pushing her fingers together. 

"Ano... Naruto-kun, where are we going?"

He lifted a hand towards the sky.

"Up there."

She followed his direction, putting her palm above her eyes to shield them. He was pointing way up to the top of the cliff, to the tip of the Yondaime's hair. She took a short breath.

"N-Naruto-kun, what's up there?"

He turned to look at her, bewildered.

"Strawberries, of course."

"S-s-peaking of strawberries... Naruto-kun... you still have the s-strawberry juice... on..."

She pointed at his forehead. He crossed his eyes, staring at the sticky remains on his nose.

"Oh, oops."

He stuck two fingers in his mouth, wetting them with his tongue, then wiped at the color he could see. A particularly large blob remained on his forehead, but Hinata said nothing. His eyes started fogging up from staring in that weird way so long, so the boy gave his head a shake. Naruto used the side of his hand to wipe at his eyes as he said, "Let's start climbing, then."

Hinata began fidgeting. She knew how to use her chakra to climb walls and such, but to be honest, it was a bit of a weak point for her. Lately she had been getting lessons from Aburame Shino, another teammate of hers. He was amazingly precise at that sort of thing. She, however, had only recently been able to hold the perfect amount of spirit energy in the soles of her feet for any longer than a few minutes. It was by no means an easy thing to do.

For Naruto, though, it must've been. He was scaling the mountain in a relaxed manner, an identical posture to someone simply walking down the street. She was hardly surprised by this; in the words of a friend of hers, Uzumaki Naruto was a "Chakra Freak". He could, she assumed, stay up there for hours. Days, maybe.

Hinata took a long time deciding whether or not she would tell the boy about her missing ability in this field. In the end, she took a slow, deep breath, made the hand sign of the ram, collected her chakra at the base of her feet and moved towards and up the face of the cliff.

"Hey, Hinata! Hurry up!"

"Ah, y-yes!"

She began pushing herself. _Ignore everything around you, _she told herself, taking a few more deep breaths, _and focus on controlling your chakra._

Wall-climbing was a bit like walking. Once your feet were good an attached to the side of whatever you were climbing it was just a matter of keeping your life energy at the same flow. You often had to picture a suction cup on your foot, sticking you to the object and keeping you from falling. Unlike water walking, (which she, unfortunately, couldn't really do) in which you had to push out chakra to keep yourself balanced, hands-free climbing was more of a keep-your-chakra-from-getting-too-strong-or-too-weak sort of thing. In the beginning, she had assumed, Naruto had problems with his chakra being too strong. Her case was the opposite.

"Hinata!"

She chanced a look up (since she had been watching her feet carefully) to the boy above her, who was hanging by one foot, upside down, from the stone Sandaime's nose. He waved his arms happily in the air and shouted, "Gramp's booger!"

Hinata smiled slightly at his actions, which in turn caused her to lose her concentration. She shreaked as her footing slipped, clawing at the rocks in front of her. One hand finally grabbed something, and she held on for dear life as she tried to calm herself down.

"Hinata! You okay?"

She took a few more, much shallower breaths, and slowly opened her eyes.

"Y-yes, I'm all right."

Some tiny rocks and dirt fell past her face as Naruto skidded down a level where he no longer had to yell for her to hear him. She looked up at him, past her now scraped and bloody fingers and hands, and felt herself blushing in spite of her situation, at the concerned look the male ninja was sending her.

_I'm going to do it right, this time, _she decided, suddenly determined. She was going to make it up this cliff and show her precious person just what she could do. She was not a burden.

So, very carefully, Hinata once again collected her chakra and put her feet against the rock. In a doubly careful manner, she slowly let her hands free of their holds. She spun her arms a little, trying to balance her body before taking a few tentative steps upward. She could vaguely see Naruto smile before he resumed climbing, quickly making a much grander space between them.

And it went alright from there. The Hyuuga heiress made it at least another few stories up before her partner yelled that they had nearly reached the top. He was closest, but she wasn't far behind.

"Ah, I'm relieved," she had whispered, gazing longingly at the end of their trip.

Mistake.

Just as the fox ninja had reached the top, Hinata's chakra gave out. Her feet found no rests when she slipped, and neither did her hands. She was free falling, backwards, down a mountain.

She screamed.

"HINATA!"

The boy jumped before he even knew he had. His legs were pressed together in an attempt to move faster, his hands outstretched to catch his friend. Now they were both falling, one before another. He flapped his arms like some orange-clad, oversized bird, picking up speed as they continued to plummet towards the houses of the village. As he neared his target, the shinobi stretched out his right hand, turning his body to favor the arm it was attached to. A terrified Hinata grabbed it with one hand, and the boy had to throw his weight towards the stone wall to hook his feet to it. Even once they had made contact, the speed was overwhelming. Naruto threw his free hand out, grabbing the rock, to act as their anchor.

They were slowing down. Finally, he could let his sore anchor-fingers go and use them to instead hold on to the girl. Both of his hands held on one of hers, and it was all he could do not to let her drop.

He made sure his feet were good and hooked, moved one hand down to grab Hinata's forearm, and hauled her up to him.

It was unconscious, but the girl had no regrets about latching onto Naruto's neck and crying her heart out. Never had she been so scared. Not all those times when she had been yelled at by her father, not when she had fought her cousin Neji in the Chuunin Exams.

She felt the boy's hand on her waist, holding her up, but had hardly felt the other come around her back to bring her closer. She was sobbing uncontrollably, wrapping her arms around his neck with all the strength she had, despite her shaking limbs.

"You're okay now. It's okay."

He was selective about his words, not wanting to freak the girl out by saying something weird or, more so, somehow making her faint like she tended to do when he was around. He could feel her trembling.

"Hey, Hinata? I'll piggyback you up, alright? You won't have to worry about falling again."

He could also feel her nod into his neck.

"That's good. Just stay calm for a sec, okay? I promise I won't drop you."

He began turning around, letting go of the hand on her spine and instead using the one around her hips to tug her to his back. The former limb moved around and caught her thigh. She whimpered, now hanging by one leg and her two arms.

"Just hang on."

He quickly grabbed the other leg and hoisted her up a little. Her arms were tight, and he had to quietly ask if she could loosen them a bit, for fear of cutting off his oxygen supply.

He waited a few moments, letting the girl calm her breathing before he began walking up the slope again. A slight sigh escaped him; they had lost a lot of ground.

"Feeling better?"

"A little..." came the whisper from near his left ear. She luckily wasn't shaking as much now, and her breath was once again regular. Her voice, however, told a different story.

"It was scary for you, wasn't it?"

A valiant attempt to spark a conversation. It was not a very smart topic, given the current events, but what else was expected from Uzumaki Naruto?

Hinata said nothing.

"I'm sorry for taking you up here," he said slowly, just in case the Hyuuga girl decided to answer at some point. He paused. "You didn't tell me you were bad with heights."

"I-it's not... heights..." came a murmur. He turned his head a bit to hear her better.

"Ehh?"

"I... Shino-kun w-was teaching... me to c-climb with my... chakra... but... I-I'm not so good at it..."

He was silent for a moment, thinking.

"Didn't Kurenai-sensei teach you?"

"Y-yes..." Her eyelids fell a little and she stared at the wall they were climbing as she answered. "But... I couldn't... really do it very well, s-so Shino-kun... was showing me... how to do it... for a longer time."

"I see."

She didn't move.

"I think you did really well, considering."

"R-really...?"

He nodded, smiling a little.

"Yeah. When Sasuke and I were learning, neither of us was very good at it. Sakura-chan did it perfectly right away, though." He looked back to the top of the mountain. "I was doing the worst, too."

She was somewhat surprised at this. He had such amazing chakra control; how could he have ever been bad at it?

"But I asked Sakura-chan for help. The same thing you did with Shino."

He slipped for a second, and Hinata made a short, fairly quiet scream and tightened her grip. Naruto, however, was totally calm about it.

"I had to try over and over. Sasuke and I actually went out all day at one point." He grinned, recalling their accomplishment. "But we made it to the very top of the trees."

"The... top."

"Yup. And it wasn't easy at all. I had to lean on Sasuke all the way back to Inari's house."

"Inari?"

"That's right, I never told you about this before, did I?"

The kunoichi shook her head.

"This was a long time ago... we were in the Country of the Wave. That's where I met Haku and Zabuza."

She rested her forehead on his shoulder and whispered, "I'm listening."

"Oh, and they were bad guys at the time. They were working for this stupid guy called Gatou, who was trying to stop the people of the Wave from building this huge," he gestured with one arm, keeping the other with a secure hold on the girl's leg. "HUGE bridge that led to the mainland. That's how we got home, too. We had to walk on it."

His feet met the top of the cliff and he shook Hinata a little.

"We made it to the top," he said gently. The girl opened her eyes and soaked up her surroundings.

"Strawberries?" she asked quietly, noting the bushes that covered most of the area in front of them. He nodded.

"Yep. Lots of them."

He slowly let go of her legs and bent a slight bit so she could slide of his back, being sure that she was facing away from the mountain edge. She just stood there, looking at him thoughtfully. No pointing fingers, no pink face, and apparent dreamy eyes. Naruto lifted an arm to shield himself, just in case this was some magical Hinata clone that had somehow appeared on his back during their climb and hidden the real one somewhere.

"Thank you."

His arm dropped and he relaxed, though somewhat still confused. The Hyuuga girl had closed her eyes when she said those words, kind of bowing and then looking off to the side before moving towards a patch of berries.

Shrugging, the boy followed.

"Ano... so... Naruto-kun, is there something we can put these s-strawberries into?"

"Like a basket?"

She gave a small, "Mmm," and the fox nin turned away.

"N-Naruto... kun?"

"Hang on a second," he said, then started walking towards a nearby tree. Curious, she followed.

He bent down at the bottom of the leafy tree, shoving his hand into the hole at the base. Tongue sticking out, he rustled around whatever the cubby contained. After a few seconds of bending to look in and shoving around more stuff, the boy produced a small wooden basket.

"Taa daa."

It wasn't as good as the wicker one Hinata had had at home, but it would work. A pair of thin boards formed the bottom, along with four longer, more bend pieces for the sides. There were two dingy-looking ropes attached to either side as well, like handles. She took it gratefully.

"And I think... there was a cover...?" He put his arm back into the hole and let his fingers search some more. Eventually, he brought out a plank of wood.

The girl stared at it.

"That's... a cover?"

"Well," said her friend, turning it in the air so he could see all sides, "It should work."

"Ano... Naruto-kun, how come there's a basket under this tree?"

He looked at her.

"Oh, there's lots of stuff 'n here."

To prove his point, he once again reached into the tree, this time pulling out a few wooden saucers. Hinata couldn't even guess what those were for. The boy, however, grinned when he saw what he had found.

"Those are for later," he said giddily.

Back to the hole in the plant. Next, he brought out... a sandwich?

"AUGH!"

A sandwich... was what Hinata guessed it was. Honestly, there wasn't really a way to tell. It looked more like a blob of maggots. In any case, it was thrown far away promptly.

"Oh my _god_. I knew something smelled wrong."

"T-there's nothing else like... that... is there?"

"I hope not."

Next came a blanket. It was a muddy cloth, but a blanket nonetheless. Naruto stared at it.

"I should wash that. It smells bad, too."

It was thrown somewhere close to where the sandwich had landed. The girl looked off towards it's ending point. How did he plan to wash it if he lost it...?

Oh, that's right. This boy was Uzumaki Naruto. He didn't plan to wash it.

More shuffling from the insides of Mister Tree. Another basket came out.

"This is good. Now we can both have one."

"Yeah..."

The boy stood up.

"Let's go pick some strawberries!"

"Y-yes!"

* * *

"Ano, Naruto-kun, how are these strawberries d-different from any others?" 

The ninja looked up from the row of bushes he was picking behind.

"What? Oh," He paused a moment, a berry held up at a weird angle in his mouth, "they're sweeter."

"...why?"

"Hmm? I don't know. They just are."

She resumed plucking the fruit in front of her.

"Maybe it's the place they're growing at."

Hinata turned back to him, a questioning frown on her lips.

"Well, you know, with people and stuff, if they live in a certain place they might turn out a certain way. And I think the things that happen in their lives affect them too."

"Naruto-kun... that... that's a-amazing."

"What is?"

She blushed, looking down at her basket of berries.

"It's... a-amazing that... you c-could say... something like... t-that..."

"Like... incredible-amazing, or incredible like I-can't-believe-you-said-that?"

"I-incredi... the f-first one."

"Well, thanks."

She chanced a look at him and was surprised to find him pink-cheeked. Naruto tilted his head down, towards his basket, then quickly brought it back up; and Hinata was suddenly aware that a strawberry was flying towards her. Her hands jumped up to catch it. She felt it hit her palms and opened them towards her eyes, finding that the end of the fruit was bitten. The kunoichi looked back at the person behind her.

"I-it's..."

"It's really sweet. Try it."

She studied the berry. Was it any different than the ones she had grown? It didn't seem that way, as the color and texture was the same. She hesitantly bit over top the part Naruto had already taken. The result?

"It's sweet!"

"Yeah, told you so."

"But... but, it's r-really sweet!"

"...yeah."

She gushed at the sensation. It was brilliant! Like someone had rolled the berry in sugar, then dipped it in chocolate. Never had she tasted anything this good. At least, no fruit this good. It was so... oh, she couldn't think of any other word -- sweet, but it wasn't missing any strawberry taste.

The only difference, she noticed, after finally calming down enough to look at the source of her happiness, was the red interior. Where her berries had been white on the inside, this one was the same color on both parts.

"Naruto-kun! I see the difference!"

He looked up from his bush again, this time with his face nearly all red.

"Difference with what?"

She couldn't answer. The boy's painted face was just too funny looking. All around his lips was a deep red, and the juice spot on his forehead was never more prominent. She burst into a fit of giggles.

"What? What! What's so funny?"

Hinata lifted a hand to cover her mouth as her laughter continued. She snorted airily as her friend stood up, the strawberry basket in hand, scratching the side of his flushing face. And that blood rush, of course, made his face redder. It was too much. She keeled over, holding her stomach.

Resigning from his pride, Naruto grinned. He really didn't know what she found so hilarious, but he didn't often hear her laugh. It was amusing.

He jumped over the bush, spilled a few berries, landed by her side, and sat down. The girl opened her tear-filled eyes, took one look at the boy, started, then burst out laughing again.

"Aww, come on. What's so funny?" he asked, choking down his own snicker. Hinata turned over to face him and, without opening her eyes, giggled, "There's... strawberries all over... your face!"

Naruto paused for a moment, watching her, and was suddenly struck by an slightly evil plan. The boy turned to his basket and drew out a large berry, gave it a hard squish between his fingers, and pushed it onto Hinata's nose.

"Ahh! N-Naruto-kun!"

She lifted her hands to her face as the berry fell off, feeling the sticky mess of juice already drying. Her precious person grinned.

"Naruto-kun...?"

"Now we match," he said happily, flashing his pink mouth in a toothy grin. She flushed the same color.

* * *

"_Ahou, ahou...!"__

* * *

_

"Whoo," Naruto sighed, a grin still stuck on his face as he washed it in a grassy puddle. His comrade followed suit, her face coming relativity clean, save for the pink on her cheeks. She looked up at him and smiled. Then a thought hit her.

"Naruto-kun? How are we going to get down from here?"

"From where? Oh, right, the mountain."

She nodded.

He turned to look off the edge of their cliff to the no-longer-midday sun. Hinata watched closely, and after a few moments, he returned her gaze, a goofy tongue sticking out of his still-red mouth.

* * *

"Remember these?" 

"Yes... I was wondering what they were for."

He held up the wooden disk to the light, then brought it back to his knees as he started cutting at the strings on the back. Hinata untangled her crossed legs to reach for the match. She brought it to her lap, trying to figure out what on earth the item could be for. Maybe it was a way to transport the berries down the cliff...?

She looked up at the boy, busy severing the tie that held the two strings together. He didn't look like he was going to answer anytime soon.

"Ano... Naruto-kun, you never... finished telling me about... the Country of the Wave."

"Oh," he said, glancing up, "Where did I leave off?"

"You w-were talking about... people named Haku and Zabuza...?"

"That's right," the boy stuck the kunai he had been using to cut the ropes in his mouth as he pulled at the wood. Hinata waited patiently, deciding to follow his example and pick at her strings. He gave a moan of frustration and hauled the weapon from his teeth to again saw at it.

"So... we were... we met up with Zabuza, who Kakashi-sensei was fighting – that's the first time I saw his Sharingan eye. And he caught Sensei in some water prison thing. So Sasuke and I attacked him. It was my plan, too!"

The male shinobi smirked.

"Then, once we freed Kakashi-sensei and he used his awesome water dragon thing that he copied off Zabuza, Haku appeared, except we didn't know who he was at the time, since he had an ANBU mask on."

He paused to once again put the blade in his mouth. Hinata gave up on her disk and turned her full attention to her precious person as he continued talking.

"Then they just kind of disappeared and we all thought that Zabuza was dead, but he wasn't, for some reason... and we met up with them later on the bridge."

Naruto suddenly frowned.

"Haku... I thought he had killed Sasuke. And then something happened... I... got really... strong."

His arms stopped moving and his eyebrows furred as he recalled the incident.

"Naruto-kun?"

He gave a start and stared at her, then quickly looked away.

"Ah, sorry. Umm... I fought Haku... and I broke his mask... and he... he asked me to kill him."

"Why?" she asked slowly.

"He said that he wasn't useful to his precious person anymore... since there was someone stronger than him. I stole his reason for living."

"But... I don't believe t-that's true."

"Huh?"

"I don't believe... that this Haku-san was useless... everyone can... become stronger."

The boy was silent, staring at her flushing face. Then, wordless, he went back to his disk. The strings finally cut and he put it off to the side, reaching out a hand to take Hinata's. She passed it to him, watching his hands as they worked on severing the ropes that bound it. This one came apart more easily, and he almost as quickly gave it back to her.

"Follow me," he said, standing up.

* * *

"Naruto-kun, I don't understand." 

He looked at her from his spot on the ground. Upon reaching the edge of a slightly-less-steep part of the mountain, the boy had dropped his wooden disk and quickly sat on it. He used his arms to scuff back and forth a bit on the dirt before he answered.

"What do you mean? It's simple," he used on hand to show the path down the hill, "we're going to ride down."

"But... but, Naruto-kun! Is t-that safe?"

He froze. Nervous, the girl backed away from the edge, clutching her discus to her chest. Suddenly, the boy pushed himself backwards, skidding past her legs and spinning around to face the direction of the tree they had found the old sandwich in. He promptly lifted himself off his seat, then ran towards it.

She turned to look back down at the city, trying to think of some other way to get down this cliff. She _really_ didn't want to do it this way.

"Here," she heard suddenly, just as something was stuffed onto her head. She jumped, dropping the disk she had been holding to feel what it was covering her hair. She turned to Naruto for explanation as he moved back to his disk, only to be answered by the bright red helmet on his head instead of words. She felt the side of her head protector for the buckles.

"Now we'll be fine," he said offhandedly, once again scuffing the dirt on his wooden sled. The kunoichi began chewing on her nail as she lay down her disk. He looked at her.

"Are you worried?"

"A... little."

"You shouldn't be;" the boy told her, averting his gaze back to the just-setting sun, "we're shinobi, right?"

She nodded slowly.

"We have to face danger every day of our lives. We can't be afraid to do things that are dangerous. Otherwise," he shifted anxiously, "we wouldn't be cut out to be ninja."

Hinata bit her lip.

"Naruto-kun? Does t-that mean... we... s-shinobi... should never b-be scared?"

"Nope."

She was silent.

"There's nothing wrong with being scared."

Hinata gave a start, confused.

"Every human in the world is scared at some time. We can't help it. But to let fear hold you back..."

He let the sentence drop as he turned his head to smile at her. He didn't have to finish. She understood.

* * *

"I still can't believe Hinata ran away like that." 

"What did you say happened, again?"

The boy sighed, kicking a rock with his foot. Akamaru happily chased after it.

"She met up with Naruto and I at the lake, he took of running with her, saying something about strawberries, I chased after them, the idiot made a fool of me, and they escaped."

"...you got distracted."

"Well... no! He just... he was laughing for some reason, and I... uhh..."

Kiba scratched the side of his pink face, trying to think of a substitute scenario. His comrade, Shino, however, was totally unfazed, his hands in his pockets and eyes... sunglasses... facing forward as always. The Inuzuka boy groaned.

"Okay, fine. I got distracted. But... it was still Naruto's fau-- YAH!"

The ninja windmilled his arms to keep from tumbling as he tripped over a stalled dog. Falling anyway, Kiba put his hand in front of himself, making a triangle with his body for a moment before he fell sideways, to save squishing his pet.

"Akamaru! What the hell?"

The canine barked in response, looking up at the steep hill in front of them. He followed his dog's example, only to squint at the two dust-inducing things that were sliding towards them at Mach 5. He stood up quickly, leaning forwards to see better as his right hand reached for his weapons sachet. Shino hadn't moved.

A long silence as the... things... got closer. Kiba suddenly started.

"H-Hinata?"

"AaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH...!"

WHAM!

The boy flew backwards as an airborne kunoichi plowed into him. He felt her arms grab his neck as they rolled, muffling a small, "mmmph," as their speed slowed. Dust billowed around them as their tangle of limbs finally skidded to a stop. Wincing, he opened an eye.

"...oww."

"Ah! I'm sorry! K-Kiba-kun, are you alright?"

"Yeah, sure."

She scrambled off of him, unbuckling her helmet and brushing her black hair back as she pulled it off. It was Hinata, alright; though, for some reason, she was positively _beaming._ She was grinning like he had never seen, and was panting as she looked back to where she had came. The second person was flying down next to them now; Shino nimbly sidestepped and avoided being knocked over, and as the velocity slowed they could see a windswept Naruto spinning out of control. He was holding the side of his seat – was that wood? -- with a death grip, screaming his head off until the very second he fell over.

After sitting there for a few moments, still as a statue (legs still crossed and everything) he relaxed, then shot upright like a bullet.

"WHOO! THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!"

The girl started laughing, despite the fact that she was completely out of breath. She turned to Kiba, her grin never more apparent.

"You HAVE to try that," she said.

He stared at her. Was this _his_ Hinata? The extremely shy, faint-at-the-sight-of-Naruto, Hyuuga heiress Hinata?

"Hina--?"

Her head cocked to the side for a moment before she was re-distracted by her crush.

"Hinata! Hinata! Didn't I tell you? Wasn't that awesome?"

She nodded hysterically, her face flushed, then suddenly tore off towards the sled she had flown from. The three boys watched her curiously, before Naruto jumped up, yelled, "Oh, yeah!" and followed. For a second, it was almost comical. Hinata was being outgoing and talking at the top of her voice. Naruto was totally spacing and following _her_ lead. When had this alternate universe kicked in?

"Ahh, they're squished!"

"Not all of them! See, it's okay!"

"Are they still good?"

"Sure!"

The two ran back towards Kiba, one with a basket stained red, and the other with a handful of mushy strawberries. Naruto dropped to his knees and skid at the last second, leaning so far forward that he was only a few inches from his friend's nose. The dog-favoring shinobi backed away, but not before a berry was shoved against his teeth. He bit it and juice spewed all over his lips. Hinata, meanwhile, was handing one to her sunglass-wearing teammate.

She turned to look at Naruto and grinned. He did the same in Hinata's direction. All while the two boys marveled at the taste of the mountain-picked, ultra-sweet strawberries.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

I revised the story, mostly 'cause the slight out-of-characterness was bugging the crap out of me...  
I hope everyone has enjoyed this writing. I did my best.

The "Naruto is a Chakra Freak" was a referance to Damewren's story _Two Halves_. It has been taken off but if you can find it elsewhere and have not read it, do so.  
Oh, and just so it's known; in this story, I wrote that Hinata couldn't get traction on water. Yes, I have seen episode 148, therefore I know that Hinata _can_ waterwalk -- please just assume that this takes place a while before that. Thanks.

Reviews are very much appreciated!


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